The Horticulture Standards Committee meets around two to three times per year. We aim to have a wide and representative spread of appropriate expertise on the committee together with consumer and public interest representatives. The Horticulture Standards Committee's remit is to develop and keep under review our horticulture standards and to deal with any relevant issues referred to the committee from licensees, Soil Association members, the public or our certification department. Agendas and minutes of meetings: We like to keep our standards setting process as transparent as possible. To view the last meetings' agendas, please visit the links below. HSC 10/09/08 [PDF, 23 KB] HSC 14/11/07 [PDF, 40 KB] HSC 20/02/07 [PDF, 24 KB] To view the last meetings' minutes, please visit the links below: HSC 14/11/07 [PDF, 57 KB] Issues that have arisen in recent meetings: Cleaning and hygiene of mushroom growing sheds Standards for responsible water use Seeds subject to protoplast fusion Current committee members and their expertise: Vacancy: Soil Association member representative Anne Evans: Licensee - vegetables and greenhouse crops Richard Bowers: Advisor Andrew Burgess: Licensee - fresh produce packer John Davenport: Licensee - fruit, vegetables and box scheme Tim Deane: Licensee - greenhouse crops, mixed vegetables, top fruit and box scheme Emma Garrod: Horticultural Development Council Roger Hitchings: Advisor and chair of ACOS Technical Committee Margi Lennartsson: Garden Organic Matthew Murton: Licensee - fresh produce packer and wholesaler William Rose: Licensee - horticulture crops and fresh produce packing Jenny Usher: Soil Association Council member and licensee - greenhouse crops, vegetables, soft and top fruit Jill Vaughan: Chair of the committee. Licensee - plant raiser Matthew Wilson: Licensee - vegetables, soft and top fruit This page will be updated as consultations/amendments to horticulture standards arise. The next meeting will be held in Spring 2009, date tbc. For more information, please contact Liz Austin at eaustin@soilassociation.org VACANCY Consumer members for standards committees We are looking for a new consumer member of the Horticulture Standards Committee. You must: · Have an interest in the work area of the committee and be able to follow the discussions · Have experience of working to reach collective decisions on committees · Be a Soil Association member with a commitment to organic production. You will need to be able to commit some time to the post. Committees meet around two or three times a year and we have the occasional conference call and email discussion. If you would like more information about any of the committees or would like to send in your CV, please email Amanda at awoodmanhardy@soilassociation.org